It's been a while since you've heard from us. Sorry, things have been especially exciting lately. We spent a few days working our way across the span of Uganda from South to North and finally made it to Sudan. Things went well at the border crossing but since we've arrived it's been pretty crazy. I'm even sitting next to Malaria stricken Tim right now. There's a lot of small stories that I could write about, but you'll just have to ask about them when we get home. For now,I want to go back to the beginning of the trip. We've waited to write about this in hopes to get some conclusive news. Let me explain.

I'll start by giving a shout out to everyone who helped us make connections to their connections of people who are on the front lines of fighting poverty and changing the world. Your help gave us purpose and direction as we did our research on the causes and solutions of poverty. One of these connections however did the opposite of this.

A great friend of ours told us about a guy he used to go to high school with and is now running a video editing school in Central Kenya. We decided to go check it out and then the plane crash happened. This guy, who runs the school, ended up coming down to Nairobi when he heard about the news. At first, he was incredibly nice and said if we needed anything to let him know. Over the next couple of days we began to see inconsistencies in his character.

I could tell detail after detail of all the ways he secretly was systematically trying to lay a foundation to completely scam our friend George. George, the ShoeMan, collects used pairs of shoes and sells them. Then uses money to buy drilling rigs which supply clean water to those suffering in Kenya (check him out at www.Shoeman.org)He also was with us and helped us through the crash repercussions. George met him through us so he thought he was trustworthy not knowing that we had also just met him.

He literally turned out to be a full on con artist. I always had a bad feeling about the guy. He started talking George into sending all the money for the drill workers pay through him so he could distribute it and also convinced George that he should find a way to send him new computers for his school. Once we informed George of the truth about what this guy was up to, he was enraged.It finally peaked when the guy’s taxi driver-friend tried to charge us over $150 bucks for a taxi a few hours away and back (3x what it should be). George blew up at this guy and it was so courageous of him. Figures since George is an old Vietnam vet. He laid out all the ways we caught him in his little…well big scam. He even said that it is greedy people like him who are the reason why some people in Africa are so poor (I told him to say this one :) just as we are leaving and congratulating each other on how we stood up against injustice and conquered it, we got some bad news. In all of the commotion, a local African friend of ours who was also in the car with us forgot to get her purse. We had to call this guy up and ask if he would bring it back to us right after George said he "Never wanted to see his ugly face again." So we got a hold of him and he left it at a place nearby where we were for us to get it from there. After picking it up, we realized he stole more than $100 from it. We filed a police case on him and that is the reason we've delayed this blog. We were hoping that when we got back to Nairobi we would find him arrested in jail or something and be able to share the results. Sadly that is not the case and the justice system works a little differently here. That guy is still out there taking advantage of people’s generosity.

The thing that really got to me at first was how he portrayed himself to be a Christian. How could he exploit something like that knowing that we were Christians (well not Tim) just to get money out of us? It infuriated me that he was using a belief that is all about sharing, giving and being generous to facilitate his own selfish greed.

Later that evening as I was praying it hit me. (Quick side note) In some way, for the rest of my life, I want to fight Human Trafficking and forced prostitution of young girls. For some reason, there is a demand for the virginity of girls from sick perverted men. In a strange and intricate way they are proving that there is an immense intrinsic value in the purity of a young girl. Stay with me for a minute on this one. The fact that some demented man would want to exploit her for nothing more than their own selfish pleasure, actually proves that those girls have so much worth. Man, this is when i get upset. So... in the same way to see this guy trying to use Christianity for his own benefit I believe just proves that there is value and weight in its truths. If no one ever tried to exploit Christianity then I would have to seriously question if it was really worthy of me devoting my life to understanding how best I could live out its principals. In a similar way if a young girl didn't have an enormous amout of value then why would someone try to take advantage of her and why would God call me to protect and defend them.

I believe this proves that Christianity is everything I hope it is and in a strange way I was able to almost be thankful that guy who wanted to exploit it (Colossians3:12-17). This also might have a little to do with Christ asking us to love our enemies, but I'm not exactly sure. I do know that it definitely freed me of so much frustration and unbeneficial hatred I had toward him. "Love your enemies" and remember that when ever someone tries to exploit you they are proving that you have worth, so rejoice. "blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness".

I've learned a lot about greed from this and another very similar encounter on this trip. I think that pride and wanting to have control and power is the greatest cause of poverty in the world. I say this because pride manifests itself most commonly in the form of greed since money is a universal way people attempt to attain both power and control. Imagine if we could overcome this desire as human beings and have the mindset of those in 1 Chron. 29:14 "Who am I,and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from You (God) and we have given only what comes from Your hand." What we have is not our own, but it is ours to give.

Personally I've been very convicted recently. When I give to help those who are poor and suffering in this world, I give out of my abundance. I've never given $ in away that would cause any discomfort or insecurity to myself let alone suffering. Where is the love in just giving what is of excess to me, my scraps? If love is defined as a self-sacrifice for another’s benefit then there is none. I heard a story yesterday of a woman who lives in Pakistan. Her worldly possessions consist of two cooking pots and not much else. She sold one of them and used the money to get her friend out of slavery. What would the world be like if you and I, out of our wealth, gave the way this woman did out of her poverty? What ever it may look like all I know is that it's a world that I want to be a part of.

Matthew 19:21 = "Sell your possessions and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

Thomas Merton = "Hate greed, hate injustice and hate tyranny, but hate these things in yourself not in another."

FrancisChan = "Oh my friends! Enjoy your money; make the most of it; give none away; enjoy it quickly for I can tell you, you will be beggars for all of eternity."

1Timothy 6:10 = “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.”

David of the "Give a Damn?" team